A brief Journal of what passed in the City of Marseilles, while it was afflicted with the Plague, in the Year 1720

by Pichatty de Croislainte

But this is utterly impossible, almost all of that Sort of People of the Town that could be sacrificed in so dangerous a Work are consumed; they do not live in it above Two Days; they catch the Plague the first Corpse they touch, whatever Precaution is used; they are furnished with Hooks fastened to the End of long Staves; but the coming any thing near the Bodies infects them: They are paid no less than Fifteen Livres a Day; but as alluring a Bait as that is to beggarly Wretches, they will not touch it, in the Sight of certain and inevitable Death; they must be hunted for, and dragged to the Work by downright Force: Now whether they are able to keep themselves hid, or whether they are all dead, there are no longer any to be found; in the mean while, the dead Bodies remain in the Houses, and at the Gates of the Hospitals, cast in Heaps one upon another, there being no Means to remove them and bury them in the Pits.

In this Extremity the Sheriffs have recourse to the Officers commanding the Gallies, most earnestly beseeching them to let them have some of their Slaves to serve for Buriers of the Dead, offering them Security for supplying their Room at the Cost of the City, or to make the Loss good to his Majesty. They condescend, considering the absolute Necessity, to give them Twenty Six of their Invalids, to whom they promise Liberty to excite them to the Work.

It cannot be denied that the City was in some Measure saved by the Help of these Slaves, and of those afterwards granted, but it must be allowed too, that to Sheriffs who are oppress'd with the Weight of Business, and deserted by all Persons on whom they could repose any Part of their Care, such Buriers of the Dead are very burdensome.

They are destitute of all Necessaries; they must be provided with Shooes when there are neither Shooes nor a Shooemaker left in the City: They must have Lodgings and Victuals, and no body will harbour, or come near, or have any Communication with Gally-Slaves, Buriers of infected Bodies: A watchful Eye must be kept over them Night and Day; they rob all Houses from whence they fetch the dead Bodies; and not knowing how to harness the Horses, or drive the Carts, they often overturn them, breaking the Carts or the Harness, which cannot be mended, not only because there is neither Wheelwright nor Collarmaker left, but because no body will touch Things infected; so that the Sheriffs must be continually begging or borrowing of Carts from the Country, where every Body contrives to hide them; and must often be at a Stand in a Work requiring the most Haste of all others, which those Slaves affect to perform so slowly and lazily, that it is very provoking.

In what City of the World was it ever seen, that the Consuls were harrassed with so many Cares, and reduced to the Necessity of going through all the dismal and dangerous Offices, to which the Sheriffs of Marseilles are forced to sacrifice themselves? Seeing that very quickly, to oblige those Slaves to make more Dispatch, and carry off putrified Bodies which they cannot endure to touch, nor even so much as to approach, without being excited and urged on, the Sheriffs are forced to put themselves at their Head, and go the foremost where the Infection rages most, to make them carry them off: M. Moustier for near Two Months together was forced to rise constantly at Day-break, to see them put the Horses to the Carts, and prevent their breaking them; to follow them to the Pits, lest they should leave the Bodies on the Sides of the Pits without burying them; and at Night to see the Horses unharnessed; put into the Stables, and the Harness hung where they may be found next Morning, and thereby prevent the Inconveniences which might interrupt the Continuance of a Work, the Delay of which is dangerous. Even the Roman Consuls, so full of the Love of their Country, did certainly never carry their Zeal to so high a Pitch.

The 19th, Persons are chosen in all the Parishes to make Broth for the sick Poor, and to distribute it among them; and a particular Hospital is established, which the most moving Accidents such a Calamity can produce, render absolutely necessary.

Many Women who suckled Children, dye of the Contagion; and the Infants are found crying in their Cradles, when the Bodies of the Mothers or Nurses are taken away; no Body will receive these Children, much less suckle, or feed them: There is no Pity stirring in the Time of a Plague, the Fear of catching the Contagion stifles all Sentiments of Charity, and even those of Humanity: To save as many as possible of these little Innocents, and of so many other unhappy Children of tender Age, whom the Pestilence has made Orphans, the Sheriffs take the Hospital of St. James of Galicia, and the Convent of the Fathers of Loretto, which were become empty by the Death or Flight of all those Monks; and there Care is taken to feed them, with Spoon-Meat, or by holding them to Goats to suck. The Number of them is so great, that tho' 30 or 40 die in a Day, there are always 12 or 1300, by the Addition of those who are brought in successively every Day.

The 20th, Part of the Slaves, which had been received into the Town but Two Days before, are struck with the Plague, and disabled from Working; more are asked of the Officers of the Gallies, who grant Thirty Three.

This Day all the Millers and Bakers ceasing to work, because almost all their Servants have left them and fled, an Ordinance is issued at my Instance, requiring the Deserters to return, and to forbid those who remain to leave their Masters, on Pain of Death. Not one Mason is left in the Town, and divers Works are wanting to be done in the Church-Yards, and the Hospitals. A like Ordinance is published, to compel them to return; and another forbidding the carrying out of the Town, Meal or Brown Bread, designed for subsisting the Poor, on the Penalty of a Fine and Confiscation.

The 21st, the Pestilence begins to rage with so much Fury, and the Number of the dead is multiplied so suddenly, that it appears impossible to carry them off in Carts to the Pits without the Town; because the Carts cannot well go to the upper Quarter of St. John, nor to several others of the old Town, the Streets of which are narrow and steep, and yet the greatest Number of dead Bodies lies in those Streets, which are inhabited by Multitudes of the meanest People; and besides, it is so far from thence to the Pits without the Walls, that there is no doing so much Work without falling into the Inconvenience of leaving many Bodies behind, which would poison the Air, and breed a general Infection.